Six years ago, Elon Musk hyped a next-generation Roadster, the name of Tesla’s debut car from 2008. A refreshed version was never produced, but Musk is once again promising a new Roadster is on the way.
“Tonight, we radically increased the design goals for the new Tesla Roadster,” Musk wrote on X as part of a series of posts Tuesday night. “There will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car.”
“I think it has a shot at being the most mind-blowing product demo of all time,” he wrote, adding that it will reach 60 miles per hour in less than a second, “and that is the least interesting part.”
Musk first promoted the next-generation Roadster concept in June 2018 in a series of tweets. He said at that time, “SpaceX option package for new Tesla Roadster will include ~10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around car.” The engines would improve speed and braking, and may “even allow a Tesla to fly,” he wrote at the time.
On Tuesday, he replied to his old tweets saying, “You will love the new Roadster more than your house.”
Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s renewed proclamations followed news that Chinese rival BYD introduced a new electric supercar, dubbed the U9, that can hit speeds similar to high-end models from companies like Ferrari.
BYD’s electric supercar, which it says will be able to reach a top speed around 192 miles per hour, is slated for delivery to customers this summer. While BYD doesn’t have plans to sell its vehicles in the U.S., Tesla competes with BYD in mainland China and other markets.
Tesla’s market share in China declined in January to 6.1%, while BYD’s share stood at 29.2%, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association cited by Morgan Stanley China Autos researchers in a note Wednesday.
Grandiose promises from Musk are nothing new. His frequent failures to deliver on them are the subject of an online promise-tracking website called ElonMusk.Today. The site noted on Wednesday that it’s been, “1,876 days since Elon Musk said the new Roadster will use rocket technology that will allow it to fly.”
In Tesla’s most recent quarterly shareholder update, the company said the new Roadster is still “in development” with no pilot production line built and no chosen location for production.
“Musk is the master of selective disclosure of information,” said Warren Ahner, an automotive tech expert and former competitive driving instructor.
Ahner said it’s not clear how a supercar would benefit Tesla’s business, adding that it’s “mostly for ego.”
“If you have the right credit score, you can walk into a Tesla showroom and buy a Model S Plaid today,” Ahner said. That “already has way more power potential than 99% of drivers on the road are capable of handling.”
Ross Gerber, a long-time Tesla fan and recent Musk critic agreed that it would be hard to “move the needle” for Tesla with a refreshed Roadster.
“If they make a great car that people will talk about, there could be a halo effect” said Gerber, CEO of wealth management firm Gerber Kawasaki. He compared it to the recently released Cybertruck. “Everyone wants to look at it and stuff,” Gerber said. “But does it mean that it will help Tesla sell other cars?”
Gerber said Tesla should be focusing more on its affordable EV, which it calls its “next-generation” platform. He added that Musk’s outspokenness on political matters “has been really detrimental” to the company and shareholders.
“I don’t think he’s focused,” Gerber said. “And I don’t think he tries at all to sell cars. It’s put Tesla in a really tough position where we had to lower our investment in Tesla because we don’t feel the opportunity is as good now that Elon has turned off so many of the company’s core customers.”
On Musk’s X account, which claims 174.1 million followers, Musk has recently denounced immigrants and disparaged diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in medicine and other fields.
A government intervention in struggling chipmaker Intel is “essential” for the sake of national security, analyst Gil Luria said Friday, following a report that the Trump administration is weighing taking a stake in the company.
“We’re all capitalists,” Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We don’t want government to intervene and own private enterprise, but this is national security.”
Bloomberg reported Thursday that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in Intel. The news sent Intel shares higher, and the stock climbed again Friday.
Intel previously declined to comment on the report.
Luria said such a deal is needed to revive Intel and reduce the country’s reliance on companies like Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor to manufacture chips. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high-end technology to be made in the U.S.
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How the White House could structure such an intervention is still in question. Bloomberg reported Friday that the administration has discussed using funds from the CHIPS Act.
Intel received $7.9 billion from the Department of Commerce through the CHIPS Act, and it was awarded roughly $3 billion under the CHIPS Act for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program.
“Intel has had many opportunities over decades to get it right, and it hasn’t. So we need to intervene,” Luria said. “The government’s going to come in and it’s going to give Intel unfair advantages, and if it’s going to do that, it wants a piece of the business.”
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met with Trump at the White House on Monday after the president called for his resignation based on allegations that he has ties to China.
Luria pointed to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that the rise of superintelligent AI could be “the next wave of nuclear proliferation,” as evidence that direct intervention by the government is needed.
“We can’t rely on somebody else making shell casings for our nuclear arsenal,” Luria said. “We have to get it right.”
Applied Materials shares sank more than 10% in extended trading Thursday as the semiconductor equipment company provided outlook for the current quarter that came in light.
Here’s how Applied Materials did in its third-quarter earnings results versus LSEG consensus estimates:
EPS: $2.48, adjusted, versus $2.36 estimated.
Revenue: $7.3 billion vs $7.22 billion estimated.
Applied Materials said it expects $2.11 per share in adjusted earnings in the current quarter, lower than LSEG estimates of $2.39 per share. The company said to expect $6.7 billion in revenue, versus $7.34 billion estimated.
CEO Gary Dickerson said that the current macroeconomic and policy environment is “creating increased uncertainty and lower visibility.” He said the company’s China business is particularly effected by the uncertainty.
The Trump administration’s tariffs could double the price of imported chips unless companies buying them commit to building in the U.S. Applied Materials makes tools for chip foundries to physically make chips, much of which currently happens in Asia.
Applied Materials said that it has a large backlog of pending export license applications with the U.S. government, but that it’s assuming none of them will be issued in the next quarter.
“We are expecting a decline in revenue in the fourth quarter driven by both digestion of capacity in China and non-linear demand from leading-edge customers given market concentration and fab timing,” the company’s finance chief said in a statement. He added that it expected lower China business to continue for several more quarters.
Applied Materials reported $1.78 billion in net income, or $2.22 per diluted share in the quarter, versus $1.71 billion or $2.05 in the year-ago period.
The company’s most important division, semiconductor systems, reported $5.43 billion in sales, topping estimates, and representing a 10% rise from last year.
Applied Materials was praised by President Donald Trump earlier this month after it was included in an Apple program to make more chips in the U.S.
Apple said it would partner with the chipmaker to produce more manufacturing equipment in Austin, Texas.
Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel shares rose 7% on Thursday after Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the chipmaker to have the U.S. government take a stake in the struggling company.
Intel is the only U.S. company with the capability to manufacture the fastest chips on U.S. shores, although rivals including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung also have U.S. factories. President Donald Trump has called for more chips and high technology to be manufactured in the U.S.
The government’s stake would help fund factories that Intel is currently building in Ohio, according to the report.
Earlier this week, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan visited Trump in the White House, a meeting that took place after the president had called for Tan’s resignation based on allegations he has ties to China.
Intel said at the time that Tan is “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.” An Intel representative declined to comment about reports that the government is considering taking a stake in the company.
“We look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesperson said.
Tan took over Intel earlier this year after the chipmaker failed to gain significant share in artificial intelligence chips, while it was spending heavily to build its foundry business, which manufactures chips for other companies.
Intel’s foundry business has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step in moving towards expansion and giving other potential customers the confidence to turn to Intel for manufacturing.
In July, Tan said that Intel was canceling plans for manufacturing sites in Germany and Poland and would slow down development in Ohio, adding that spending at the chipmaker would be closely scrutinized.
Under Trump, the U.S. government has increasingly moved to put itself at the center of deals in major industries. Last week, it said it would take 15% of certain Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip sales to China. The Pentagon bought a $400 million equity stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials.It also took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy the U.S. industrial giant.
Intel shares are now up 19% this year after losing 60% of their value in 2024, the worst year on record for the chipmaker.